8 different types of team Impediments.
8 different types of team Impediments.
How to handle impediments as a Scrum Master?
👋 Hello,
I’m Vibhor, and welcome to my weekly newsletter, the “Winning Strategy.” Each week I explore one question from you about agile, product, roles, processes, frameworks, career growth, working with humans and anything else that’s stressing you at your office. Send me your questions here, and in return, I’ll offer actionable, down-to-earth, and simple advice.
Q: Scrum Masters are labelled as impediment removers. Can you please throw some light on how a Scrum Master solves impediments?
Before I delve into the topic, it’s important to clarify a few things.
A Scrum Master does not solve impediments. A Scrum Master helps the team identify the impediment and then works with the team to potentially handle the impediment in a way that it stops being a block.
There are 8 different kinds of team impediments. How to approach an impediment depends upon the kind of impediment we are dealing with. All of these 8 different impediments are listed in the image below.
This post will be a live document. I’ll add to it as I learn new and effective tactics.
10 skills needed to handle impediments
Below are some essential skills that you, as a Scrum Master, will need to help your team resolve these impediments.
Facilitation skills - to guide your team through discussions and keep them on track toward a specific goal.
Coaching skills - to help your team members develop their own skills, both individually and as a group.
Communication skills - to clearly and effectively convey information and ideas to team members and other necessary parties.
Conflict resolution skills - to identify and address conflicts within the team and find a mutually beneficial resolution.
Leadership skills - to inspire and motivate the team.
Agile knowledge - a deep understanding of Agility to navigate uncertainty,
Organizational skills - to manage multiple tasks simultaneously and keep track of the progress.
Technical skills - a general understanding of software is made to effectively communicate with the dev team.
Empathy - to understand and relate to the team’s challenges and help them find a solution that works for them.
Adaptability - to adjust to changes in the project or team and find a solution that works in the new context.
Let’s go into details
1. Technical Impediments
Definition:
These are technical infrastructure or software development process-related impediments. This may include a lack of hardware or software resources, a lack of testing or debugging tools, or trouble merging different software components etc.
How to identify this impediment:
While monitoring team’s sprint progress and performance metrics, look for any technical issues or bottlenecks. Multiple defects or slow builds are typical indicators of technical impediments.
During Sprint Reviews and Retrospectives, gather team’s feedback on technical obstacles.
Techniques to help resolve:
Facilitate discussions among the team and stakeholders to identify and prioritize technical issues.
Work with the Product Owner to ensure that technical debts are included in the product backlog.
Encourage the team to explore new tools or technologies that could help them work more efficiently.
Facilitate training sessions or workshops to help the team learn new skills and tools.
Work with the team to create an initial plan to address tech debt. Help them prioritize and split the work into manageable user stories and tasks.
Collaborate with other teams and departments and seek suggestions on how they handle such technical issues.
Facilitate experiments (aka spikes) to test new tools and tech before implementing them in the production environment.
Encourage the management, middle management and the team to adopt DevOps.
Example case:
The development team can't finish the sprint backlog on time because their network connection is slow or unreliable, and they can't get to the tools or resources they need to do their work.
Case suggestion:
The Scrum Master can work with the team to identify alternative solutions, such as providing additional hardware resources, improving network connectivity, or using alternative software tools to complete the task.
2. People Impediments
Definition:
People impediments are issues related to the team members and their interactions that prevent effective communication or collaboration. These can include a range of factors, such as personality conflicts, lack of trust, poor communication skills, differing work styles or approaches, and individual or team-related stress and workload management.
Example case:
A team member who is particularly dominant during team meetings and conversations makes other team members hesitant to contribute their own ideas and perspectives.
How to identify this impediment:
Watch how the team works during meetings and discussions to see if anyone dominates the conversation or if people aren't talking to each other well.
Check-in with each team member on a regular basis to find out if they are having any personal or professional problems that might be affecting their ability to work well with others.
Use team assessments and surveys to ask team members how well they are communicating and working together.
Use retrospectives to find and talk about any people's problems that might be slowing down or stopping the team from working well.
Techniques to help resolve:
Promote open communication: At team meetings and one-on-one sessions, the Scrum Master can encourage team members to share their opinions and feelings openly and respectfully.
Handle conflict: The Scrum Master can assist team members in resolving disagreements by facilitating discussions that allow them to better understand each other's points of view and identify common ground.
Build trust: The Scrum Master can foster trust by modelling transparency, maintaining confidentiality, and encouraging team members to rely on one another for help.
Promote collaboration: To assist in creating mutual respect and understanding, the Scrum Master should encourage team members to collaborate on tasks and share responsibilities.
Offer assistance: The Scrum Master can provide assistance and resources to team members who are dealing with personal or professional issues that are interfering with their job.
Establish expectations: The Scrum Master can assist in establishing clear standards for conduct and communication in order to enable the team to operate more effectively together.
Promote team-building: The Scrum Master can organize team-building activities that assist team members in getting to know one another and creating rapport and trust.
Note: Scrum Master is “not a life coach”
You are not a life coach, and your main duty is to support the team to achieve business agility and value.
However, there may be a situation where a team member is dealing with personal or professional issues that are interfering with their ability to work efficiently.
In such situations, you, as a Scrum Master, must be aware of these problems and be ready to provide help and resources to team members when required.
You may utilize tactics like active listening and giving resources to assist team members in addressing issues that are interfering with their work.
For example, if a team member is suffering from stress, workload management concerns or WFH situations, you may give tools to assist the team member in more efficiently managing their workload.
3. Process Impediments
Definition:
These impediments relate to challenges that impede the team's ability to operate efficiently and effectively due to issues with the team's workflow or procedures.
These concerns might include a lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities, ambiguous goals or objectives, ineffective meeting structures, or insufficient documentation.
Process impediments in the Scrum framework may also refer to issues with the execution of Scrum events like daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and retrospective meetings that prohibit the team from efficiently following the Scrum process.
Example case:
Lack of clear prioritization of work items or user stories, leading to confusion about which items to work on next or disagreements about what is most important.
How to identify this impediment:
Observe the team during Sprint Planning meetings to identify if there is a clear process for prioritizing work items or if the team is struggling with this.
Monitor the team's progress during the Sprint to see if there are delays or issues completing work items that may be due to a lack of clear prioritization.
During retrospectives, encourage the team to provide feedback on what is working and what is not. Ask them directly if they feel they have a clear understanding of what work items are most important.
Review the team's Product Backlog with the Product Owner and ensure that the items are clearly prioritized and understood by the team.
Use data and metrics, such as burn-down charts or velocity, to identify if the team is struggling to complete work items due to a lack of clear prioritization.
Techniques to help resolve:
Clarify the team's understanding of the product goals and align backlog items accordingly.
Encourage open dialogue and a clear process for prioritizing work items during Sprint Planning.
Use collaborative prioritization techniques like "Dot Voting" to quickly prioritize backlog items.
Establish a clear Definition of Done for each backlog item to help the team understand the priority and effort required for completion.
Break down larger backlog items into smaller, more manageable pieces to make prioritization and completion easier.
Encourage the team to regularly review and adjust their prioritization as new information becomes available.
Provide effective prioritization training and coaching to the team to help them understand the benefits of clear prioritization for the team and the product.
4. Environmental Impediments
Definition:
These are obstacles related to the team's physical or organizational environment, such as a lack of office space, poor lighting, or excessive noise.
Example case:
An example could be a team that works in an open office space with a high noise level, which can create distractions and hinder the team's ability to focus and collaborate effectively.
How to identify this impediment:
During retrospectives, get input from team members about the work environment and identify any concerns impeding their productivity.
Examine the team's work environment for visible signs of discomfort, such as excessive noise or insufficient lighting.
Use surveys (for example, survey monkey) to get input on the work environment from team members and find areas for improvement.
Perform frequent workplace evaluations to identify and fix any physical or environmental problems that are impeding the team's capacity to function properly.
Collaborate with the facilities management team to resolve any workplace difficulties, such as bad lighting, ventilation, or insufficient resources.
Encourage team members to communicate openly about any workplace challenges they may be experiencing and to collaborate to develop solutions that work for everyone.
Techniques to help resolve:
Prioritize concerns: Collaborate with the team to identify the most pressing issues that must be addressed first.
Involve the team: Encourage the team to be part of the solution by involving them in identifying and implementing solutions.
Engage with facility management: Work with facility management to resolve any workplace difficulties.
Create a comfortable work environment: Employ measures that produce a pleasant work environment, such as soundproofing and ergonomic furniture, to establish a comfortable work atmosphere.
Address physical issues: Make sure physical elements like temperature and air quality are favourable to successful functioning.
Monitor progress and results: Regularly assess progress and outcomes to verify that the remedies employed are successful.
5. Resource Impediments
Definition:
Any challenges with the tools, equipment, or resources that the team needs to accomplish their task efficiently are referred to as resource impediments.
This includes a lack of access to software or hardware, a lack of testing equipment, or insufficient infrastructure to support the development process.
The inability of a team to accomplish its task efficiently or effectively due to resource constraints may have a substantial influence on its productivity.
As a Scrum Master, it's your responsibility to identify and manage resource constraints so that the team has all it needs to create high-quality increments within the sprint.
Example case:
A Scrum team is developing a new app that requires them to run tests on various devices, browsers, and operating systems. However, the team has access only to a limited number of devices and does not have the budget to purchase additional ones. This leads to delays in testing and hinders the team's ability to deliver the product within the sprint.
How to identify this impediment:
Monitor the team's resource usage and identify any bottlenecks or constraints in the team's access to resources.
Regularly check in with team members to understand their satisfaction with the resources available to them.
Use retrospectives.
Use anonymous surveys
Techniques to help resolve:
Escalate: Escalating the issue to management or stakeholders to secure the necessary resources, such as additional hardware or software.
Prioritize: Working with the team to prioritize work that can be completed without the missing resources.
Alternatives: Investigating alternative resources or tools that can be used as a stopgap measure until the required resources become available.
Revise sprint goal: Revising the team's sprint goals or backlog to account for the missing resources and adjust the sprint scope accordingly.
Workaround: Working with the team to find creative solutions that can help them work around the missing resources, such as using emulators or virtual machines.
Share: Encouraging the team to collaborate and share resources when possible, such as sharing access to equipment or tools.
6. Ethnic Cultural Impediments
Definition:
Cultural impediments refer to challenges that arise from differences in team members' cultural backgrounds or communication styles that can hinder effective collaboration and communication within the team.
This can include language barriers, varying communication styles, different work ethics, or cultural values that conflict with the Agile or Scrum principles, such as lack of trust, fear of failure, or resistance to change.
It is important to address cultural impediments to foster a culture of openness, collaboration, and trust within the team, which is essential for the successful implementation of Agile and Scrum methodologies.
Example case:
Suppose a Scrum team consists of members from different countries with different cultural backgrounds. One team member may come from a culture that values direct communication, while another team member comes from a culture that values indirect communication. If these team members do not understand each other's communication style, it can lead to misunderstandings, conflicts, and delays in the project.
How to identify this impediment:
Observe the team's communication patterns and identify any misunderstandings or conflicts arising from cultural differences.
Encourage team members to share their cultural backgrounds, communication preferences, and work ethics to build mutual understanding and trust.
Facilitate team-building activities and exercises that promote collaboration, open communication, and understanding of cultural differences.
Use retrospective meetings to identify cultural impediments and come up with solutions to address them.
Encourage team members to provide feedback on communication and collaboration challenges they face due to cultural differences.
Involve an external facilitator who has experience in cross-cultural communication and can help identify cultural impediments within the team.
Techniques to help resolve:
Cross-cultural awareness: Provide team members which may include cultural awareness training and team-building activities.
Language: Encourage team members to use plain and unambiguous language, avoiding jargon or slang terms, ensuring comprehension.
Perspectives: Encourage team members to share their perspectives, questions, and concerns.
Collaboration: Enforce collaborative team standards that promote collaboration, such as active listening, empathy, and mutual support.
Pairing: Encourage team members to pair on cross-functional activities to better understand each other's work and communication styles.
Empathy: Encourage team members to see change and diversity as opportunities for learning and development, and recognize that everyone offers different talents and views to the team.
Open discussion: Promote open and honest discussions among team members in order to overcome any misunderstandings, disagreements, or tensions caused by cultural differences.
7. Organizational Impediments
Definition:
Organizational impediments are obstacles that are caused by the organization's structure, policies, culture, or values, which inhibit the team's ability to work effectively.
These impediments may include bureaucracy, lack of buy-in from management, slow decision-making, conflicting priorities, lack of transparency, or insufficient resources or funding.
Example case:
The company culture promotes a blame-oriented approach where individual performance is more valued than team collaboration. This leads to team members working in silos and not sharing information, which can hinder the development process and cause delays.
How to identify this impediment:
Retrospectives: Retrospectives are an excellent tool to detect team problems and organizational bottlenecks that may be impeding the team's growth.
Monitor team interactions: The Scrum Master may watch team interactions and see trends that may suggest organizational barriers. If team members are unwilling to share knowledge, this may suggest a lack of trust or a blaming culture.
Study corporate rules and procedures: The Scrum Master might review company policies and processes to discover any roadblocks to the team's development. A rigorous approval process, for example, may slow down the development cycle and limit the team's capacity to create value.
Interact with stakeholders: The Scrum Master may meet with stakeholders to learn about the organization's goals and to identify any roadblocks to the team's development. Stakeholders, for example, may have competing objectives that cause delays or limit the team's ability to produce value.
Identify problems with data: The Scrum Master may use data to uncover trends that might suggest organizational impediments. For example, if the team frequently fails to meet its sprint targets, this might signal an underlying problem that is keeping the team from operating properly.
Techniques to help resolve:
Promote open communication: The Scrum Master may help break down silos and increase collaboration by facilitating open communication between team members and stakeholders.
Advocate for change: By emphasizing the effect of the impediment on the team's capacity to produce value, the Scrum Master may advocate for change within the company.
Collaboration with management: The Scrum Master may collaborate with management to resolve any policies or processes that are impeding the success of the team. They may support their argument with facts and feedback.
Promote experimentation: The Scrum Master might encourage the team to try different ways of working in order to find solutions to the impediment.
Give training and coaching: The Scrum Master may assist team members to gain the skills they need to function successfully in the company by providing training and coaching.
How can I advocate for change?
This requires good communication skills and the ability to effectively describe the impact of the impediment on the team's ability to produce value.
If you are willing to “advocate for change,” do this:
Identify the impact: Analyze the impediment's impact on the team's value delivery. Team data and feedback might support your argument.
Build a case for change: Build a case for change by highlighting the benefits of addressing the impediment. Use examples from other teams or organizations that have successfully addressed similar issues.
Engage with stakeholders: Engage with stakeholders to understand their perspective on the impediment and to build support for the proposed change.
Suggest Solutions: Suggest solutions to the impediment that address the root cause and align with the organization's goals and values.
8. External Impediments
Definition?
These are obstacles outside the control of the team, such as changes in the marketplace, new regulations, or changes in the business environment.
Example case:
Suppose a new regulation is introduced by the government that affects the product being developed by the team. The regulation mandates new requirements that the team has not considered in their product backlog or sprint planning. The team needs to make changes to the product to ensure compliance with the new regulation, which may delay the project's completion or require a significant effort.
How to identify this impediment:
During retrospectives, invite the Product Owner to discuss market trends and external changes
Monitor social media
Regularly review/refine the product backlog
Engage with stakeholders
Techniques to help resolve:
Promote collaboration among team members and stakeholders to better understand external constraints and potential solutions.
Help the team prioritize the product backlog so that external impediments are handled in the proper order.
Encourage the team to break down large external impediments into smaller, more manageable parts to make them more controllable.
Collaborate with the Product Owner to modify the product backlog to reflect the changes needed by external obstacles.
Help the team in developing a strategy to limit the effect of external impediments on the product development timeframe.
Enable communication and collaboration between the team and any other parties impacted by external impediments, such as vendors or consumers.
This is it 🙏
This post contains a great deal of information, so don't worry about attempting to remember it all.
Consider it more of a reference guide or a source of inspiration for when you're generating ideas. And when you do come up with brilliant ideas, hit me up!
I am always open to suggestions and feedback. Pls, let me know if I missed something or if something seems odd.
🌟Also, if you share parts of the framework on social media, I request you to please use proper credits. I won’t be as frequent in sharing this kind of content if I have to track copies of it floating around on social media.🌟
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Have a fulfilling and productive week 🙏
📌 Things I loved this Week
📚 Book - I am listening to this amazing book on Audible - Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. It's a brief history of humankind, and honestly, it's fascinating. I used to think history was boring, but I was wrong! It's actually super interesting to learn about how civilizations rose and fell and how it all shaped our world today. Every chapter makes me feel smarter and more cultured. Highly recommend giving it a listen!
📝 Ted Talk - "The Habits of Happiness" by Matthieu Ricard. It talks about how to live a more fulfilling and contented life. Matthieu is a Buddhist monk and gives some great tips on how to cultivate positive emotions and a positive outlook. It's fun and easy listen/read, so give it a try!
✍️ Quote of the Week
"We study history not to know the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable and that we consequently have many more possibilities before us than we imagine."
- Yuval Noah Harari, "Sapiens"
“I share things I wish I knew in the starting years of my career in the corporate world"
Vibhor Chandel